by Shamindra Ferdinando
The Nordic truce monitoring mission has disputed
the LTTE claim that the government triggered the recent Jaffna
battle which claimed the lives of about 700 combatants and
wounded about 1,000.
The monitoring mission said that the LTTE
advanced over the forward defence lines near Muhamalai
entry/exit point and cadres landed on several beaches in the
south and on Kayts and Mandaitivu islands. The LTTE declared
that it only responded to artillery strikes launched by the
government. The monitoring mission said, " considering the
preparation level of the operations it seems to have been a well
prepared LTTE initiative."
Former Swedish head of the monitoring mission
Maj. Gen. Ulf Henricsson said this in a special report which
dealt with the situation in the peninsula immediately after the
launch of the LTTE offensive. The LTTE operation got underway on
August 11. Henricsson said that security forces stopped the LTTE
advance the following day.
The military said that the monitors, donor
co-chairs, particularly the Norwegian facilitators should act on
Henricsson’s assessment.
The LTTE should not have expected the
government not to hit back, the military said.
Army Headquarters acknowledged that 180 soldiers
died in action and about 500 were wounded. Over 500 LTTE cadres
died in action, some of them during sea-borne attacks on heavily
fortified security forces positions on Mandaitivu and Kayts
islands.
The week-long battle displaced thousands of
families in the Jaffna peninsula, Kayts and Mandaitivu.
Retaliatory air and artillery barrages carried out by security
forces inflicted sizeable damages on LTTE fighting units.
The truce monitors’ statement has cleared the
government of triggering the bloodiest single battle during a
four-year-old Oslo-arranged cease-fire agreement. Tamil
politicians, an influential section of the business and NGO
community accused the government of initiating a major
confrontation in the Jaffna theatre.
The offensive was mounted soon after the LTTE
made a failed bid to seize Muttur. The fall of Muttur would have
increased pressure on the Trincomalee navy base, the primary
supply point for forces deployed in Jaffna.
Against this backdrop the government ordered the
seizure of Sampur in Trincomalee south. A senior military
official said that a fully-fledged navy base would be
established at Sampur to facilitate naval movements between
Trincomalee and KKS. Forces would not give-up the area, he said,
pointing out the absurdity of the LTTE call to vacate the area.
"Would they have vacated Jaffna areas if they succeeded in their
recent adventure," he asked.
